freedom

today, with a small NGO - Speak Up - we visited a local Thai prison that incarcerates refugees.

in thailand, though thousands of people flood over the borders from all over asia to flee the atrocities of their own countries, refugees (even those granted refugee status by the UN) are considered illegal immigrants. If caught, they're put in immigration detention centers (IDC), essentially prisons. However it's a complex situation as Thailand (and many other countries) walks the fine line of accommodating the huge influx of people while trying to deter future refugees from traveling to Thailand.

Speak Up works with refugees but more broadly aims to provide legal advocacy and intervention for the poor and oppressed. Troy is the founder/fundraiser/lawyer and in addition to doing the legal work goes a couple times a week to the IDC to meet with different refugees and ensure that their cases are being followed by the UN.

We spent almost two hours talking to three refugees - two from China and one from Nepal.
Each prisoner wears a bright orange t-shirt which we were told makes them easier to identify if they escape.

Speaking across two metal grid partitions I spoke to the Chinese woman about her situation, why she fled China, and her hopes for the future. She described her former life, the good job she held, the family she left behind and her concerns for their safety. She described her three years in prison, endless waiting and feelings that she couldn't wait any longer. She described the prison and the difficult conditions they lived in, the women and children all living in one large room and the cries that kept her awake at night. She spoke little English, and no Thai. Being unable to communicate to the guards and to the other prison employees she had waited three years for a meeting with a UN official.

Where she now had papers, possible refugee status, and a ticket out of Thailand, her friend continues to wait with no news.

As we left, she thanked us profusely and said "please remember me little sister, all I want is my freedom"

It's a side of Bangkok that you rarely see and was an experience Ari and I will remember.